Airstrikes ordered cut

In a bow to public outrage over a recent spate of U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan that resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths, NATO officials on Wednesday ordered commanders to try to lessen their reliance on air power in battles with insurgents.

According to the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, more than 1,400 Afghan civilians were killed in the first eight months of this year. Of those, 395 were killed in airstrikes by Western forces.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the mission to stabilize Afghanistan had shown significant gaps in the ability of the United States and NATO to integrate their civilian and military efforts.

To be successful in Afghanistan, Gates said, the entire NATO alliance, the European Union and nongovernmental development organizations "must better coordinate with one another."

Pakistani intelligence agents re-arrested an American detained in the country's volatile Afghan border region and were questioning him, police said.

The man -- identified as Jude Kenan -- was carrying a laptop computer when he was arrested Monday at a checkpoint near where Pakistani security forces have battled Islamic extremists for two months.

Kenan was released Tuesday but was picked up for further questioning hours later at his home in the nearby city of Peshawar, police said.

NEWS SERVICES